PC-Engine CD: The Search for Quality

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Decide to raise this old thread from the grave with the topic about a little known TurboGrafx-16 prototype Turbo Chip/Hu Card game that was developed by Tengen themselves. The proto TG-16 game is none other than Atari Games' "Off The Wall" arcade Breakout spinoff game (that actually get a proper arcade jamma conversion kit release stateside with support of up to three players at the same time using paddle controls + a single fire button that doubles as a "Start" button as well). I've heard through the grapevine that a lone guy had owned the only working prototype copy of TG-16 OTW but refused to have it rom-dumped for years -- I thought that it'd be nice to try it out should it be properly dumped one of these days. He finally caved in and had it done. (I know that there was a big auction held at the former Atari Headquarters building in Milpitas, CA back in April of 2003 -- that probably is where that lone Tengen proto TG-16 game was sold to the highest bidder & the rest is history for it to vanish out into the wilds never to be seen again.) When I attended the 2003 California Extreme show later that summer, I noticed that there was a huge influx of old-school Atari arcade game manuals up for sale at one particular CAX vendor booth (again, all those old Atari arcade game manuals were sold at auction at the previously mentioned Atari HQ back in April of 2003).

Upon booting up the prototype Off The Wall game, it says "Debug Level 2" and then the main title screen appeears with a Atari Games (C) 1991 / Atari Games (C) 1992 / Tengen (C) 1992 copywrite date. This is the 1st time I've encountered a "beta" version TG-16 game release -- there is no "Game Over" screen whatsoever. I'd have to assume that Tengen was planning either a 1992 release date (or even perhaps a 1993 release date) with this particular TG-16 arcade game port -- but sadly, it wasn't finished/completed and left as is in it's current state. Makes me wonder if there's a way to turn "off" debug mode & play it normally as it was meant to be.

I finally was able to download the proto rom of Tengen's TG-16 port of OTW to try out on a Turbo Everdrive Pro flashcart setup and here's my two cents about it:

I do own an Atari Games' Off The Wall jamma pcb (circa 1991) and it's a cool arcade puzzler within the Breakout/Arkanoid genre game mold except the goal is to have the ball enter the square marked "Exit" to advance to the next wave (the later waves have some interesting obstacles blocking the exit square). There are a grand total of 100 waves in all to peruse at your disposal. The Tengen TG-16 prototype of OTW is lacking the cool power-ups that drop towards the player's paddle (if the ball hits the flashing dot based bricks, a power-up drops from it towards the player that if he or she manages to catch it in time either helps or hinders the player {while the longer the player takes his or her time to exit the current wave, the overall speed of the ball increases making it a tougher situation to exit/finish the wave} -- either grab it to help you within that particular wave or not catch it and try to find a better power-up to help nudge the ball towards the exit square to exit the current wave at hand).

The proto TG-16 game of OTW just needs the flashing dot squares to drop the essential power-ups towards the players -- then it'd be 100% complete (but for now, it seems to be about 95% completed without the power-ups). The ball gets stuck at times making the current wave not finishable (especially on the higher waves). By pressing the "Select" button, the player can advance to the next wave (in the finished/completed version, this little "debug trick" would've have been removed entirely as not to mess up the overall flow of the game, gameplay-wise). The TG-16 port of OTW is spot-on next to it's jamma pcb counterpart right down to the tell-tale cool background scenery -- how cool is that? Also missing from the prototype OTW game, is the cool animated sequences between a number of waves that show the animated blocks that parachute from the top of the screen to the bottom of the screen & introduce players to a new block or power-up for the next upcoming portion of waves (as shown/featured in the OTW arcade pcb version).

Considering that the original jamma pcb of OTW was a 3-player affair to begin with, I'm not sure if the TG-16 prototype of OTW supports 3 players as well. I guess I'll have to scrounge up a TG-16 multi-tap + three Turbo pads and find out if that is so. Hmmm...

Tengen's port of Atari Games' Klax for the PCE/TG-16 eclipses it's jamma pcb counterpart by offering even more end-user adjustments/options before starting a serious game of Klax indeed (of course, it was Tengen of Japan whom did the PCE port of Klax themselves making it the "definitive" version of Klax to own/play). Tengen wanted Klax to be ported to the USA region based TG-16 console and made it happen. The actual arcade jamma pcb of Klax does save both the top 10 highest scores + 10 high score initials through NVRAM for posterity (which is a plus in my book) -- power it down for the night and re-boot it up the next day, it's still all there.

It's a given that the OTW arcade pcb does save the top 5 high scores + high score initials via NVRAM as well.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~